These days plenty of smartphones can get you from A to B, but often with little thought to traffic snarls that might lie ahead. A few sat-nav apps, from the likes of Sygic and Navigon, have started to incorporate live traffic data. Thankfully there are a growing number of other ways to check on traffic conditions straight from your phone.
This week VicRoads released the VicTraffic iPhone app which makes it easy to check on travel times and view traffic camera feeds from around Melbourne. It's not much use for suburban driving, but it could be handy if you're commuting across town every day. You can even save your route as a favourite so, for example, you can quickly see the status of the Eastern Freeway, Alexandra Parade and the Tullamarine Freeway on the one screen.
VicTraffic doesn't superimpose data onto a map, it just displays the same time and colour data that you'd see on the signs if you were driving along the freeway. The data appears to be pulled straight from the VicRoads computer system. The advantage of this is that the data seems to be up-to-date, unlike some of the map-based alternatives. If you're not using an iPhone, take a look at iphone.itransit.com.au - a website which offers similar data and should work on a range of smartphones.
The Google Maps app on the iPhone and Android devices offer a green/yellow/red traffic overlay option, although the few times I've tested it out it hasn't been very accurate.
If you search the iTunes store for Sydney-based traffic apps they generally get horrid user reviews because the data is out of date. I couldn't see anything that is the equivalent of the new VicRoads app. Some Sydney-based apps display travel times on a map while others just offer camera feeds, which obviously isn't as useful as actual travel times.
There are a few other alternatives for monitoring traffic conditions, such as RSS and Twitter feeds. Snarl offers iPhone and Android apps, but you can also subscribe to RSS and Twitter feeds for various parts of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The RTA offers RSS feeds for parts of Sydney, plus a quick Google search should turn up Twitter and RSS traffic feeds for your area.
Obviously you shouldn't be fiddling with your phone while you're driving, but you could always leave a Twitter or RSS app running in the background with notification enabled. A pop-up message on your phone could help you avoid a traffic jam on the way home. Do yourself a favour and keep your phone in a car mount - otherwise you could be up for a hefty fine and also lose a few demerit points.
Have you come across a decent mobile app or service for monitoring traffic conditions in your city?
Source by: digihub.brisbanetimes.com.au
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